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Major Contract Settlements & Negotiations - February 2016

According to data compiled by Bloomberg BNA, contracts negotiated in 2016 had an all-settlements average first-year wage increase of 2.8 percent, compared to 2.4 percent percent during the same period last year. The median increase for first-year wage settlements reported in 2016 was 2.4 percent, compared to 2 percent in 2015. The weighted average was 2.3 percent, compared to 2.8 percent last year.

Major agreements reached in Canada during the fourth quarter of 2015 provided average base rate wage increases of 1.4 percent for covered employees, which matched the 1.4 percent average for 2015 as a whole.

A three-year labor dispute continues as IBT-represented mechanics voted, with 93 percent agreement, to reject United Continental Holdings Inc.’s most recent collective bargaining proposal. The proposed agreement would have given 8,600 mechanics and related employees at United a 25 percent pay raise on the date of signing, an average bonus check of $9,000 and certain other benefits, including furlough protection for some members. A major source of disagreement is proposed “B-scale” wages for future mechanics.

Approximately 2,000 SEIU-represented security guards, working for seven security contractors in the Twin Cities, Minnesota region, ratified a new four-year collective bargaining agreement. The new agreement includes graduated wage increases to $15 per hour.

Approximately 18,000 USW members will be covered by a new three-year collective bargaining agreement with U.S. Steel Corp. The agreement runs through September 1, 2018 and increases profit sharing for union-represented employees. The union was also able to avoid a rise in health care premiums or substantial benefit cuts.

Nearly three-quarters of the engineers and technical workers at Boeing Co. approved a new six-year work extension, through 2022, that raises salaries and provides increased job security. The approximately 20,100 covered workers are represented by the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace.

Approximately 1,500 Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA)-represented pilots approved a new two-year contract extension with Atlantic Southeast Airlines. The new agreement was approved by 84 percent of the pilots despite only providing “modest” improvements.

By a slim margin, 50.4 percent to 49.6 percent, Southwest Airlines Co. ground workers, represented by the Transport Workers Union (TWU), approved a new five-year contract extension. The agreement raises pay by more than 20 percent and also includes $80 million to be distributed amongst bargaining unit employees as retroactive “back pay.”

Communications Workers of America (CWA) District 6 and AT&T Mobility LLC have reached a tentative agreement on a four-year contract covering 9,400 employees, in Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas, who work in AT&T’s wireless services division. Details about the tentative agreement are not yet public.